IGN Servers - Upgrade

MindPhuck

Alright ladies n germs,

I have maintained these servers remotely over the last few years with the help of greenbean, munch, overlord, revehellfire, ronin, dev, regi and ecksor. Each doing their various things. Whats become apparent is they need a re-install.

I have an oppertunity coming up soon which will allow me to completely re-install all the IGN servers - slosh, cloud, vishnu, eddie and kali.

I intend to upgrade them all to w2k servers and get them tuned to the nth degree for net games. Anyway, the machines themselves are low spec and need extra ram and cpu's.

If anyone has any spare SDRAM or intel chips faster then 350's and would like to donate them to the cause please let me know soon. Also, I'm also short on games, we could do with a couple of new games.. I'll do a poll on the games as soon as I know if the hardware /os upgrade is feasable.

Let me know

Kulgan

Good News


Ill get neil on it right away he always has spare stuff!

Stephen

Good news, cloud sure could do with more than the 128 megs of ram its got at the moment

m1ke

i've got 256megs of that PC133 ram, i dunno what type it is actually i got it with my AMD 850mhz... dunno if its any use to you.

and err a celeron 400 (lol i doubt that'll be any use to ya)

RopeDrink

I haven't had a sniff of TFC in about a year, and it pains me... Then again, same applies to CS + the fact Im meant to be running a damn CS Clan, so that's even more depressing...

Either way, it's good to know that IGN will be oiled and juiced up for when I get back... Nice one MP!

MindPhuck

Thnkx for the help guys.


Im rather surprised by the lack of input here, considering the amount of people on the boards that have /are and will use these servers over the last few years and the years to come.

Surely there is a some more of ye out there with some extra ram that you'd like to donate ?

Cmon guys, I need your help!

astrofool

all my ram is tied up atm

about 6 months ago when we last heard u had access we were planning on getting 512megs for cloud, cost about £50, but since then ram prices have tripled, so not sure what the interest in doing it now is, esp. as connection can't be guaranteed, what spec memory it need anyway ?

if we knew what you had, we could probably work out what could be added easily enough.

I know cloud is a dual p3-450 with 128 ram, but the others ?

cpu wise cloud is probably ok for a couple of servers if the ram was increased, upgrading the two chips would be quite difficult without also upgrading the motherboard.

CreeD might be able to help also, i'll see if I can get him to see this thread (he's away atm).

Had this been 6 months ago, uptake would have been immediate, but in the days of jolt/bw rentables with guaranteed good connections, people won't be as enthused (which is a shame for irish based gamers).

If you said on the HL board:

"DOD Server available if hardware supplied" there would be an uptake, likewise i'm sure an irish cs clan would want to help.

I know ourselves (ReaveR) were talking about this months ago, and since have built a server in dna up in the north along with IR (ath 1.33 768 ram) all self bought, and also have a bw server which we rent monthly, as most foreign clans ping well to them.

dahamsta

Surely there is a some more of ye out there with some extra ram that you'd like to donate ?

Extra RAM? I don't understand, what's extra RAM? Any RAM that's lying around gets fired into the machine, with a hammer if necessary. It's like saying "extra beer"!

Extra beer! Yaaay! Drink it quickly!

adam

MindPhuck

roffle, Very good DaHamsta and probably oooh soo true.


What I need is SDRAM Simms and Fast CPU's, Diskspace isnt an issue at the moment.

Spaceman

Ya can have my Subscription to lan 101 40euros towards some more ram, why not take donations of hard currency

I use the server a lot so i

astrofool

surely u mean Dimm's ?

Typedef

Astrofool.
It should be possible to flash the bios of said mobo to support the fastest p2 chips say 600mhz? Yes I would presume 'without actually knowing details' that a bios flash would negate the necessity to upgrade the mobo as such, but then again as you have rightly said, you really don't need a cpu fix with dual p450, ram is the main factor and of course the speed of the hdd access, faster is better and a bios flash may allow for installation of 'assuming an ide bus is in question' udma 100 ide hard disks, unless of course we are talking scsi in which case it's probaly a moot point.

Also just before I submit this post.
So the p2 mobos of the day had an fsb of what 66mhz? This is not a ddrable bus at this point in time is it..... so pc100 would be much the same as pc133 for a mobo like this, yes seeing as how the ram in the machine is pc100, there seems little sense in getting pc133 as it will just end up running @ 100mhz anyway.
Yes I would look quite seriously at flashing the bios and updating the hard disk if at all possible. You could pick up a nice 20gb hdd in Pc World for 'nothing' which uses udma 100 and it 'seemed' quite fast in comparison to udma 66... if the hard disks are using udma 33 this point becomes exponentionally more valid.... shrug maybe there could be some sort of nice appeal posted to technology or an admin announcement made for finances for such a worthy cause.
Typedef

bubbles

Yeah Eric, why you looking for spare parts etc? I would give them to you of course if I had any floating around. You should take donations from people too, seems the best thing to do, get some cash, and get some decent hardware out of it.

You'll prob find the responce better if ppl could donate money, whatever u can afford etc.

Stephen

Originally posted by Typedef

Also just before I submit this post.
So the p2 mobos of the day had an fsb of what 66mhz? This is not a ddrable bus at this point in time is it..... so pc100 would be much the same as pc133 for a mobo like this, yes seeing as how the ram in the machine is pc100, there seems little sense in getting pc133 as it will just end up running @ 100mhz anyway.

PC133 SDRAM is often cheaper than PC100 these days, because I don't think there's much PC100 manufactured any more. If there is a price difference, it will most likely be feck all.

Typedef

I snagged a gig of pc133 ram from Maplin about 3-5 months ago for 120 euro... my mate bought 128 mb of pc133 for 90 euro give or take just last week, ram prices have gone through the roof for sure.
Maybe you are right about the price rise, my next mobo will be a ddr for an athy xp anyway I'd say.

Back on topic, I'd investigate the feasibility or no of flashing the bios if it could be made to go from udma 33 to 66 or udma 66 to 100 as apart from tripling the ram this would 'probably' be where you would find 'most' of any noticable speed difference.

astrofool

a bios flash has never ever allowed a chipset to move up an udma level as such, the bx chipset only supports udma33, with an add on card needed to add 66/100 support.

The chips are p3's if you read above, meaning 100mhz bus, ram wise, they "probably" need to be ecc registered, these are 24/7 server's, upgrading the chips to say 600 is easy, getting a hold of the chips is the hard part, especially trying to get two matching chips.

As he said storage is sorted, i think they might be on a scsi array, but I'm not sure about that. Games servers need fast cpu's and lots of ram, not fast hard disks (that's web page server's) Game code is the same all the time, only time HD speed is a concern is on the loading of maps, and with largest maps being 3-4 megs, its not exactly a sticking point.

P2 chips topped out at 450mhz, the 350 upwards used a 100 bus.

PC133 ram is the same as PC100 ram, one is just guaranteed to work in sync on a 133 bus.

---

Make a wish list MP, and see if we can make it happen

Gerry

Something that could be investigated for extra cpu power would be the powerleap adapters for running a celeron tualatin (1ghz - 1.3 ghz ) in the servers. They are 100 fsb, I know this limits the memory bandwidth, but I'm not sure that memory bandwidth is absolutely critical on a game server. If there were cash donations setup (I'll pay whatever you think is a decent amount), these adapters and chips could be purchased. The only problem is that nobody has figured out yet how to make them work in dual configuration, but it is still not ruled out with these celerons. I'd be happy to work on getting the chips to work in a dual configuration. MP if you can email me as much info as you have on the motherboards in the machines, even just the exact model numbers of the boxes, and I will figure out whats the best chips we can put in them.

astrofool

the IGN servers have been notoriously difficult to access, so I think trying to chance it that these adaptor cards will work fine on the fly in a dualie config with a no access box system might be pushing it a bit.

DO A WISH-LIST MP

btw, are these setup in rackmount, or tower/desktop systems ?

i'd imagine they're rack mounted (?) and if they are it makes cpu upgrades a bit more tricky space wise

Gerry

hence the extensive research required astrofool. Well we could at least establish if an upgrade bios exists for any of those machines to give coppermine support.

Koopa

eric, mightnt be such a good idea to move the qw servers to win2k.. theres a bug that makes them crash after the last player has left the game occasionally, only on win2k

talk to u about this later, when i find out a bit more.. its a win2k bug apparently (ill see if theres a fix)

MindPhuck

Okay,

Here is the specs of the servers, cloud, eddie, slosh and kali. Vishnu is down so I dont have all the details and some of the information like exact mboard I just can't get remotely. From looking at them, you will see why we need them upgraded.

Please, no 'techno-wannabe-i-know-it-alls' reply to this, if you wish to help on the technical side, msg me on irc.


Kali

---

intel 440fx
intel pentium II
slot 1 (sc242 connector)
genuineintel
original oem processor
family 6, model 5, step id 0
chipset 8086:1237.02
internal clock - 332.41
system bus 66.48
system clock 66.48
multiplier 5
ram 128
PhoenixBIOS Version 4.05 A05
Dual CPU

Cloud

---

intel 440bx/zx/dx
intel pentium III
slot 1 (sc242 connector)
genuineintel
original oem processor
family 6, model 7, step id 0
chipset 8086:7190.03
internal clock - 451.02
system bus 100.23
system clock 100.23
multiplier 4.5
ram 128
Award Software
Asus p2b-d acpi bios revision 1007
release date 12/23/98 - rom size 256kb
AsusTec / p2b-d rev 1.xx
Dual CPU

Eddie

---

intel 440bx/zx/dx
intel pentium II
slot 1 (sc242 connector)
genuineintel
original oem processor
family 6, model 5, step id 0
chipset 8086:7189.02
internal clock - 348.48
system bus 99.57
system clock 99.57
multiplier 3.5
ram 128
PhoenixBIOS Version 4.0 Release 6
Single CpU

Slosh

---

intel 440lx/ex
intel pentium II
slot 1 (sc242 connector)
genuineintel
original oem processor
family 6, model 5, step id 0
chipset 8086:1237.02
internal clock - 333.34
system bus 66.67
system clock 66.67
multiplier 5
ram 128
PhoenixBIOS Version 4.0 Release 6
Single CPU

VisHnU

Here are my two bits.

Bit One: Why not run a fund raising event to get cash which can be traded for hardware ? For example a LAN Party with a dontation of say 25 quid a head (or more if people want to donate more). That should raise enough to buy perhaps 2/3 new servers. The old ones could be retired as webservers, irc servers or perhaps servers that only run one game (installing Linux on these servers will probably extend their life).

Bit Two: I would be willing to do some work towards building and hardening the servers and perhaps some ongoing admin work (thats both Win2K and Linux).

just my 2 bits.

tHE vAGGABOND

Dont let that bloke Vishnu near those servers - he's a security risk

VisHnU

Who better to have as a game keeper than the poacher :-P

DeVore

Is that Vishnu, the old Vishnu? Conor?

I'd be up for helping to upgrade these machine (in the "raising finances" stakes).

DeV.

tHE vAGGABOND

the old Vishnu? Conor?

I presumed it was Conor..

Christ, there cant be 2 of them!

MindPhuck

Its the real vishnu,


I've dragged him back from the brink of paranoia, destitution and depravity (wait, he's like that normally!) and got him to do some real life things (*cough*) and play some net games.


'tis a good idea about the fund raiser alright. Let me put some o da thinkin powah into this and see if I can come up with something.

VisHnU

Yeah its Conor allright. God knows why but I kept in touch with the Mooney chap when I fell out of the gaming scene. Now I actually have some spare time to do things other than work and cut the grass !
Personally I think the fundraiser is an excellent idea. To maximise the rack space that the IGN has in Crown alley it would be a good idea to buy rack mount kit rather than desktops or towers. A good one unit server will set you back about a grand these days and a two unit with some extra disks and NICs about a grand and a half.
There is a company called Encom in Dublin who sell rack mount kits complete with motherboards so NICs and Disks could be recycled to keep costs down.
If the aim is to put say four new servers up then you will need to raise about four grand. If you run a LAN at 25 quid a head and get 100 heads there then you would be about half way there. Run a second sometime after and bingo you have your four servers.
The other alternative is to find a sponsor, unlikely in the current economic gloom.

Conor.

Gavin

donations as well would be a good idea. I know meself and others in the og mafioso would pay around 30 euro or whatever just as a donation.


Gav


ps i remember there were once plans afoot, around 3 or 4 years ago to allow dial up straight into the network that games machines were on. That would be good

Cr8or

i have 2 64 mb pc100 dims and a 128 pc100 dim

any use?

VisHnU

Originally posted by Verb
donations as well would be a good idea. I know meself and others in the og mafioso would pay around 30 euro or whatever just as a donation.


Gav


ps i remember there were once plans afoot, around 3 or 4 years ago to allow dial up straight into the network that games machines were on. That would be good

That was when I stilled worked for EircomNet, probably a remote possibility at best now. You would need something like an ISDN PRA. However I do know that there is a POP in Crown Alley which would be as good as. I will see if I can get the number.
Conor.

MindPhuck

How can I get these off people?


Meet in the pub some night this week ?

Rev Hellfire

Maybe what your should do is stop offering totally free services.
Say charge clans for hosting, it wouldnt have to be a lot, I dont say say 50 euro for a years hosting, as it is ppl are getting pretty much unlimited hosting for free and with no banners. It would pay for a limited upgrade each year. I know HIV wouldnt have a problem with this.

You could then only allow 'paying' clans book servers or aleast the bigger better more popular ones.

MindPhuck

Just looking at the list of people who have hosting. This doesnt include all the other people with ftp accounts. A dig out here lads. Its not for me, its for you people.

www.fortress.ie

reaver
csbook
aicsl
cs.ie
hats
2v2tourney
alphafortuna
icsc
munch
hitk
f2b
hiv
die
mappers
rdcw
rd
tfc.ie


www.hatstand.cx
www.room101.org
www.kali.ie
www.quake.ie

havok
void
nd
fh
se7en
belisarius
cw
paladin
zero
koopa
mindphuck
bubbles
osiris
techdemo
thrax
team.ie
conor
iqool
fbf
ukut
darkkeep

Dazzer

Nyom, my job is about to throw out a few PCS, round 30 or 40 so Ill try and get some and see what I can salvage from them. Mainly RAM I imagine as I think the chips are ****e. Ill have a look into it.

MindPhuck

f'ing nice one Daz.

OSiriS

I'd have no problem with a little donation for the many years of service I've recieved from the IGN servers.

On another note ... I believe the next server should be named:

Mindphuck!

(or at least mp, if mindphuck is deemed too politically incorrect)

After all the years of maintainance and service to the Irish gaming community, Eric definately deserves to have a server named after him!:)

DeVore

Indeed, mp.ign.ie is well deserved. Should be a QW war server too

Other people have done work on them too like Rev Hellfire, Overlord, Regi, Xor, Greenbean, Ronin and I'm sure others (brain is swiss cheese atm). Credit where its due etc...

There should always be ones called vishnu and eddie though, for histories sake!


DeV.